Jesus and Judaism

Jesus was born a Jew and lived and taught in the environment of the synagogue, the Jewish Temple, the scribes and the Pharisees.  Much of his teaching was in response to situations he observed, but we believe that as Son of God his ultimate purpose was to offer salvation to mankind as a whole. Jesus naturally accepted the practices of Judaism. He was circumcised, took part in the festivals and attended synagogue on the Sabbath.

The New Covenant in the Teaching of Jesus

Jesus nevertheless made it very clear that his coming and his teaching meant something new.

“...no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”                                                             (Matthew 9:16-17)

Jesus’ teaching was new to his hearers because he moved beyond the letter of the Law to the spirit behind it. His own comment was:

“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.”     (Matthew 5:17)

Jesus abolished the manner in which the Law was practised in his day, for he went to the basic principles behind the Law, saying that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

Jesus then illustrated what he meant with reference to murder, adultery, divorce, the swearing of oaths, revenge, and attitudes toward enemies. In  his teaching on each of these he showed that it is not enough to fulfil the letter of the law; his followers are to observe the spirit which God intended behind it. The Law said, “Do not murder”, but the spirit behind it is that we should not even get angry with other people. The Law said, “Do not commit adultery”, but the spirit is that we should not even entertain lustful thoughts about others.

The scribes and Pharisees had the right aim: to do the will of God in every aspect of life. But they had missed the mark by trying to legislate on every point, with the result that the rules themselves risked becoming more important than the principles behind them. Jesus therefore opposed their application of the Law. Jesus’ disciples did not follow the ritual regulations on washing, although they knew this would offend the scribes and Pharisees:

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”                                              (Matthew 15:2)

Likewise Jesus did good work on the Sabbath, opposing the negative attitude to human suffering shown by those who followed the letter of the Law rather than the spirit of it. When challenged on these issues, Jesus was ready with his answer:

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honours me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’

You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”

                                                                                   (Mark 7:6-8)

The commandments which Jesus gave were not like those of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus taught basic moral principles, not technical rules and regulations about how far it was permissible to walk on the Sabbath, how to wash hands, or how to restrict the definition of “neighbour”.

...when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”    (Matthew 22:34-40)

These were the basic principles on which Jesus built.  With his authority as Son of God, he moved beyond the precise regulations of the Law of Moses itself to the essential underlying moral teaching.  The Law in its details was applicable at a certain stage of history, but not for all time. Hence Jesus abolished the food regulations (about clean and unclean animals) because these were not relevant to the aim of loving God fully and loving one’s neighbour as oneself.

And he called the people to him again, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing [i.e. no food] outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.... Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”  

(Mark 7:14-23)

Moral behaviour before God is a matter of the heart, not a matter of what one eats or how one washes.

This new approach was so radical that Jesus said a new birth was necessary:

Jesus answered him [Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews”], “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 

(John 3:3)

Speaking to the woman of Samaria, Jesus declared the approaching end of the old system:

“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.... But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”                           (John 4:21-24)

Worshipping God in spirit and truth is a matter of the heart, of one’s attitude. From the time of the preaching of Jesus, worship was no longer to be by the offering of animal sacrifices in the Temple. Worship was no more to be in a particular location, but anywhere. Worshipping God in spirit and in truth means doing God’s will in everyday life, living by the true attitude taught by Jesus, Messiah and Son of God (John 4:25-26).

How this teaching was worked out in practice, and the difficulties which it involved, can be observed in the rest of the New Testament.

In Jesus, God was acting in a new manner, making a new agreement with mankind, a “new covenant” as Jesus described it at the Last Supper.

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”                        (Matthew 26:27-28)

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”                                                 (1 Corinthians 11:25)

Features of this New Covenant include:

(a)  The spirit of the Law and not the letter of the Law.

(b)   Individual commitment rather than national.

This thereby opened out the New Covenant to be accepted world-wide.

(c)    A recognition of the highest ideals accompanied by an awareness of our inability to live up to these ideals.

Because of our inability, in Christ, by the grace of God, there is forgiveness of sin, and help to overcome sin.

(d) The whole sacrificial system of the Old Covenant is abolished by the sacrificial death of Jesus.

(e)  The place of worship is not located in Jerusalem nor any special building. The place for worship of God is the individual heart in everyday life.

The New Covenant in the Old Testament

The New Covenant had been anticipated in the Old Testament both in God’s promises to Abraham and in the prophets.

“Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.”  Then he [the LORD] said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”  And he believed the LORD;  and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.

                                                                                  (Genesis 15:5-6)

The apostle Paul commenting on this passage says of those now living under the New Covenant in Jesus:

Thus Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”  So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham.  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”  So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.                                     (Galatians 3:6-9)

Jeremiah spoke of the New Covenant, specifically using the words:

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.  But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:  I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”                                                                                                                (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

This was originally spoken to “the house of Israel and the house of Judah”, but God’s revelation in the New Testament is that the New Covenant embraces all those who believe through Jesus:

And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.... To him [Jesus] all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.                                                                                   (Acts 10:34-43)

The prophets paved the way for the New Covenant. They criticised animal sacrifices when not offered in the right spirit:

Hear the word of the LORD...

 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?

 says the LORD;

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams

and the fat of fed beasts;

I do not delight in the blood of bulls,

or of lambs, or of he goats.

When you come to appear before me, who requires of you

this trampling of my courts?

Bring no more vain offerings;

incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and sabbath and the calling of assemblies—

I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts

my soul hates;

they have become a burden to me,

I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread forth your hands,

I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

I will not listen;

your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

remove the evil of your doings

from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

seek justice,

correct oppression;

defend the fatherless,

plead for the widow.”             (Isaiah 1:10-17)

Jeremiah and Micah go further:

“With what shall I come before the LORD,

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

He has showed you, O man, what is good;

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?                          (Micah 6:6-8)

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.  For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’  But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.  From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day;  yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.                                (Jeremiah 7:21-26)

Both Micah and Jeremiah state that animal sacrifices were not what God really wanted.  God’s real desire was moral obedience, righteous living.

The New Covenant in the New Testament

It might be wondered why, if God did not really want sacrifices, they were prescribed in the Law. The answer is given by the apostle Paul and in the Letter to the Hebrews. Paul described the Law as a custodian to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24-25).  It was a preparation to develop spiritual understanding, but it was not the full understanding itself. The Law, says Hebrews, has only a “shadow of the good things to come”:

... since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near.... ...in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.  For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.                                                                                             (Hebrews 10:1-4)

Hebrews 10 then applies Psalm 40 to Christ and to his sacrifice to make the same point as we have already observed above in Micah and Jeremiah.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired,

but a body hast thou prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’

as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” 

When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Lo, I have come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.                                                                        (Hebrews 10:5-10)

Under the New Covenant, sacrifices are indeed to be offered by the followers of Christ, but these sacrifices are spiritual. They are the moral obedience of a Christlike life.  

Through him [Jesus] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.                                                                             (Hebrews 13:15-16)

In Spirit and Truth

Jesus taught the woman of Samaria that true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).

This teaching is followed by the apostle Paul and developed in practice amongst the early ecclesias. In Galatians Paul applies it to one of the fundamental religious practices of Judaism:

Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.... ...in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.                                                                                                (Galatians 5:2-6)

The Law is properly fulfilled not by ritual observances but by moral behaviour:

...through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”   

(Galatians 5:13-14)

It is important to realise that under the New Covenant Jesus has opened for us a “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20).  Ritual observances, as obligatory requirements on the believer in Christ, are ruled out.

... when we were children [i.e. under the law], we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons....

... Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have laboured over you in vain.                               (Galatians 4:3-5,  8-10)

In Colossians, Paul again makes exactly the same point:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ....

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigour of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.                                      (Colossians 2:16-23)

The New Covenant was the basis of Paul’s preaching. He described himself and Timothy as “ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Paul continued in 2 Corinthians 3 to contrast the two covenants, regarding the covenant in Christ as vastly surpassing that under Moses:

... what once had splendour has come to have no splendour at all, because of the splendour that surpasses it. For if what faded away came with splendour, what is permanent must have much more splendour.

(2 Corinthians 3:10-11)

The conclusion of Paul’s contrast between the two covenants is this:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.                 (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

What then is the New Covenant? It is a relationship with God into which men and women have been brought through our Lord Jesus Christ. In this new relationship we willingly participate with God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

(Ephesians 2:10)

“We are his workmanship”, or as Paul puts it to the Philippians (2:13), “God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” In the New Covenant, all who believe are brought into a new community, described as “God’s household”, “a holy temple in the Lord”, “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit”:

… you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.                           (Ephesians 2:19-22)

In this relationship we seek with all our abilities to love God and neighbour, following the true spirit which lay behind the Law. The true spirit involves a life of moral goodness, and this moral goodness is the kind of worship which God really desires from us, and works in us to achieve.

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.                            (Romans 12:1-2)

This is worship in spirit and in truth: commitment to true values as described in the rest of Romans 12: humility, service, genuine love, holding on to what is good, rejoicing in our hope, being patient in tribulation, being constant in prayer, practising hospitality, blessing those who persecute, not repaying evil for evil but overcoming evil with good. None of these is a matter of observing rules about food, keeping special days, or performing religious rituals. This does not mean that the believer never does any of these things; it means that they are not fundamental requirements of living acceptably before God.  So, under the New Covenant, is there any place for religious practices like fasting, observing special days, foot washing, or anointing with oil?  Obviously the spirit behind these (Christlike behaviour) is the important requirement, but that still leaves the question: are we to follow such practices, not as requirements in themselves, but for some other reason?